Seed Order

Today we ordered seed for fall and next spring. Most of the time the seed packets or seedlings available in local big box stores are just fine. I like to try new plants and learn about different varieties, so usually place an on-line order. For example, Guatemalan Blue squash, two types of garlic from Germany - one is hot and the other is sweet, Bulgarian Carrot - a hot orange pepper, a yellow paste type tomato, a 7-inch long paste tomato (both the same shape as Romas), and I had to stop myself.

Every year we like to try something new to see how we like it and how well it grows here in Arizona.

Time to plant fall gardens is about a month away, so now is the time to plan and prepare.

See you next season

Current activities include mulching the garden, turning off the water, and waiting for cooler weather. Taking a break from the garden blog until fall. When it's time to start seedlings we'll start posting again.

Season Ending

We gave the tomato patch two weeks to do what it could in the 108 degree Phoenix weather to ripen the last of the crop. This heat makes the flowers close before they can be pollinated so no new fruit has been setting for several weeks. We picked 61 pounds of tomatoes and then proceeded to run the vines through the chipper machine. There was an area where root knot nematodes were evident - thick roots are an indicator. We'll let the sun heat and dry the soil to get rid of them, and conserve water until it's time to plant in the fall.

The pepper plants are a beautiful green, and we get a few to cook with dinner or eat fresh. The only other producing plant at this point is the strawberry popcorn, which needs a couple of weeks before the cobs will be fully colored and mature. This is the two-inch cob with pointy dark burgundy colored corn people buy for Halloween decorations. Well, it also happens to be a wonderful popcorn!

The onions and garlic are fine, and mostly buried in grass clippings from the lawn to protect them from the heat. Any time we need a fresh one we just dig down and pull it up. If we don't use them all this summer they will grow again in the fall and divide into multiple cloves. If you leave at least one garlic to grow for two years, you can harvest all but one of the divided cloves and leave the last to grow and divide again the next year - never needing to replant. We use garlic from the store, although there are varieties I am itching to try. Buy a bunch from the supermarket, break apart the cloves and plant them about six inches apart somewhere near a watered plant (under a vine, in between roses,...). That's all the effort it takes to have your own fresh garlic year round.

Tomatoes

We are on the downward slope of this year's tomato harvest. Weekly harvest weights have been 125#, 140#, and 90#. There are about 100 quart jars of tomatos in the pantry, plus about 20 pints of pizza sauce, and another 32 of salsa. That should hold us for a year, give or take visits from college students...

The rest of the garden is enduring summer heat. The indian popcorn is showing tassles, zucchini are drying up, bell peppers are doing great, Hubbard squash look to be ripe, and there are some lima beans setting. We still have carrots but they are starting to get tough and spouting big tops to make seed.

We had a minor infestation of squash bugs show up on the Hubbard so had to break out an insecticide spray for the first time. Also noticed a couple of tomato horn worms this past weekend, but we've rarely had to do anything about them as the summer heat puts an end to the tomato patch before they really become a problem.

Last of all the grapes are all turning color and will soon be ready for harvest. We had an unfortunate experience this year with skeletonizers. They at first seemed to be under control from the systemic pesticide we typically use, but after three weeks of not paying attention we found several vines severely damaged and had to remove about 50% of the grape clusters, hoping they will still have the energy to sweeten the remaining crop. No leaves, no solar energy conversion into sugar. If that doesn't teach you to be diligent and monitor things once a week I don't know what will.

All in all a great garden so far this year that will meet our needs. Oh, and the onions and garlic are fantastic, and the kiwi are getting larger and starting to climb the trellis we made for them. Can't wait to have our own fresh kiwi!

Tomatoes are in season

Picked 124 pounds of tomatoes today, which we then processed into 35 quarts of bottled juice. We shred the tomatoes through a salsa screen, which leaves the tomato pulp in larger pieces but still removes most of the skin and cores. It's nice to see the pantry filling up again after last year's poor harvest. We were down to about a dozen jars of tomato juice from 2009 and 2010.

Busy Gardening

Sorry for the long pause between posts. The garden has kept us busy. The past two weeks we picked enough tomatoes to bottle a few jars, and this past weekend we made salsa with tomatoes, onions, garlic, and cilantro all from the garden. Our peppers are not doing well so we had to buy those.

Tomato tally thus far is about 75 pounds. We are also getting golden zucchini about twice a week, and green beans once a week. Tonight we bottled a few pints of green beans and are looking forward to more - they are so good fresh from the garden steamed with a bit of salt and butter.

We have also been busy with the Apricot tree. Picked about 60 pounds from the one tree and made lots of jam and fruit leather. Pictures are on the way.

May is here



First golden zucchini




First tomatoes of the season



May marks the season of full production in our garden. Last weekend we picked the first handfuls of tomatoes, and notes that the apricots are turning from green to yellow. We also enjoyed a couple of golden zucchini - a welcome addition to the dinner table after the first batch of plants failed to thrive. The popcorn we planted where the peas and broccoli were has also sprouted so we'll hopefully have some corn this summer.

Photos of the garden from early April to the end of April show a huge change has taken place, from a few scattered plants to a sea of different shades of green. This is the time when it is fun and rewarding to see all of the different plants doing their thing - different colors of green and different stages of producing fruit. We even enjoyed shredded beef chimichangas seasoned with fresh garlic, onion, sage, rosemary, and cilantro. So rewarding to have all of that fresh in the backyard.



Beginning of April





End of April